


Blood Blossoms Like Flowers

by Night-Lie (Night_Lie)



Series: Blood Blossoms Au [1]
Category: Daredevil (TV)
Genre: Gen, POV Female Character, Temporary Character Death, just putting it out there so no emt gets mad at me, misuse of cpr maybe, somewhat unrealistic 911 call maybe i don't know how they work, sorry to those who like foggy's brother he's not here, that's such a spoiler for this but dsjkdshg i hate when people don't tag it, vague allusions to being step siblings, written before s3
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-12
Updated: 2019-08-12
Packaged: 2020-08-19 21:21:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,143
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20216464
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Night_Lie/pseuds/Night-Lie
Summary: “His last words were to me,” Candy said, surprising herself and her parents who turned to look at her. “He said he was proud of me. Why would he- He shoved me away. He took the knife for me. He said he’s proud of me. What gives him the right- Why did he- I didn’t say I loved him back-”Mom moved across the couch, wrapped her arms around her and Candy sobbed into the same shoulder Foggy had breathed his last breath on.---Foggy dies, but it's not that simple.





	Blood Blossoms Like Flowers

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Whose Poems Sewed You Shut](https://archiveofourown.org/works/6347215) by [vibishan](https://archiveofourown.org/users/vibishan/pseuds/vibishan). 

> So, I kinda hate spoiling the ending, but I hate missing the tags when I read works more, so.
> 
> Yes, he dies. No, it's not permanent, don't worry.
> 
> I wrote this before season 3 so Theo isn't here, sorry.

“To my sister, for her accomplishment as the best young mathematician in New York state!” Her brother had a dumb smile on his face as he raised his glass with a jubilant cry, making most of the restaurant turn and look. She blushed and glared.

“You’re embarrassing me,” she hissed, sinking down a little on herself, hoping her glittery dress and red hair weren’t so eye catching right now.

“I’m just so proud of you, Candy! Can’t I be proud of my little sister? You're the ARML world champion!” He grinned like he was making a speech at her wedding. Hopefully he’d wear any other tie then over this 80’s math one he’d somehow produced for the dinner. _Any_ other tie.

“No, you can’t, not in public. Preferably not ever. And that’s not how it works, I can’t be the world champion in the American Regions Math League. Because it’s the _American_ regions.”

He shrugged, still smiling. “Oh well. First the USA, tomorrow, the world!” He offered his glass again. Dad clinked it with his own.

“I’ll drink to that,” he said and downed his drink of water bottoms up. Mom swatted his shoulder.

“Edward, everyone will think you’re having vodka!”

“This isn’t vodka? Anna, are you sure?” Dad eyed the now empty glass with raised eyebrows, as Candy and Foggy let out twin chortles.

“So how about dessert to celebrate?” Foggy asked hopefully as the waitress collected their now empty dishes.

“You ate a full plate of chiken alfredo and you still have room for dessert?” Candy asked suspiciously. “You’re a bottomless pit.”

“Eh,” her brother shrugged. “I saw cheesecake on the menu. It’s not every day you get a great addition to your resume.”

“I agree,” mom said. “You deserve it, honey. Or something else, if you don’t want cheesecake.”

She looked at her brother’s wide, warm smile and turned to the waiting waitress.

It was a good cheesecake.

*

They decided against a taxi on the grounds that it wasn’t far to their building, and it was a weeknight. Foggy made his usual jokes about walking off what he’d just ate.

It was a good night for walking.

Mom and Dad insisted walking on behind them because of the late hour. She exchanged glanced with Foggy. Wordlessly, they agreed were being paranoid, but they didn’t put up a fight about it. She did give Foggy a different glance when he put himself between the cars and her. As if a car would end up on the sidewalk. She didn’t comment.

“I should have brought a coat,” Mom said a few minutes into their walk, folding the ends of her cardigan over her middle, crossing her arms. Dad took off his coat and put it over her shoulders with a flourish. Mom giggled.

“They’re being mushy again,” Foggy stage whispered with a grin, making Candace roll her eyes.

“That’s what married people do, Foghorn.”

“Yeah, but it’s still mushy mush.” He gave her arm a small nudge. She nudged back and he stumbled a little, shoe catching on a crack in the pavement. He looked down briefly and then up at her to say something. Unexpectedly, his eyes went past her face to something behind her in the alley and widened. She whipped around.

It was a druggie, clearly. Tall like a beanstalk, with a messy brown beard, long hair and a grimy beanie. Something glinted in his hand and she looked at it, transfixed. Mom and dad had come to a stop behind them.

“Wallets. Right now.”

“Jesus, okay, okay, just calm down,” Dad said, placating, digging his hand into his coat pocket. “Just don’t do anything. Take the wallets. Candy, give him your wallet.”

“Okay, okay, fine,” she opened her purse. “Fucking great.”

It happened so suddenly, but at the same time she saw everything happen in slow motion.

The man moved, and she looked back up at him.

The man’s wild, reddened eyes turned angry without provocation, glaring at her with such ferocity she felt chills, taking a half unconscious step back.

He raised his knife and rushed at her, mouth twisting in a grotesque snarl.

A firm hand hand on the front of her shoulder pushed her back, towards Mom and Dad, away from the madman.

Foggy, now in front of her instead on her right.

Foggy, gasping and stumbling as the man barreled into him, knife sinking into his body too easily.

Foggy, shouting.

Time sped up again, everything happening too fast.

Mom screamed like a banshee, and Dad pushed past them to the man, angry like he’d never been before.

“Get the _fuck_ off my son!” There was a flurry of motion as the two men scuffled.

Blood drops splattered in an arch onto the pavement, following the knife out of Foggy’s side. He bent over, clutched at the wound and stumbled towards the road with a terrifying raspy sound. Candy reached out and yanked him back, fight forgotten. More blood, spreading across the unnaturally white of his collared shirt between his fingers.

“Candy, call an ambulance.”

She didn’t notice where the man had gone, but Dad was at her side, pulling Foggy away from her and sitting him on the sidewalk, back against a brick building. 

“Candy! Ambulance!” He yelled again, and she shoved her shaky hand into her open purse, pulling out her flip phone. Her fingers spasmed on the numbers, and as soon as she’d dialed her gaze was on Foggy again.

“911, what’s your emergency?” The voice was even and professional, but it made her jump out of her staring.

“My brother was stabbed, oh my god, oh my god, there’s so much blood!” It spread wider on his pale shirt like a flower opening up.

“Alright, miss, where are you?”

“Hell’s Kitchen, New York, on... On…” She tore her eyes from Foggy and looked around for a sign. Where were they? She knew. She’d walked this sidewalk a million times. So why didn’t she remember? 

“47th street. 10th Avenue. Oh, god, so much blood.”

“Okay, miss, and what’s your name?”

“Candy.”

“Candy, I need you to press on the wound.”

“Mom- Mom’s pressing. It was a knife, he had a knife and he pulled it out, I don’t know where he went, he was on drugs, he tried to stab me, Foggy jumped in front of me-” At the mention of his name her brother looked up, pale and clammy. He gave a weak thumbs up, and Candy had never wanted to kick him more.

The blood soaked through Mom's thin cardigan slowly, like more flowers.

“That’s good. Is he responsive?”

“Yeah, he’s listening to our parents, he looked at me when I said his name.”

“That’s very good. An ambulance is on its way. Two minutes. You can end the call now, Candy. You’ve done great.” 

She dropped her phone into her purse and noticed she was panting.

“Candy,” Foggy said, some strange look passing on his white face. “Candy, come here.” She stumbled over the two required steps and fell on her knees in front of him, Mom on her right and Dad on her left. There were other people too, maybe, but that didn’t matter.

Foggy grabbed her hand. “I love you, Candy.” Her body went cold.

“What? No, no. Don’t, you’re not, no. You don’t get to say goodbye.”

Foggy smiled sadly, looked at Dad and squeezed his arm before he slumped closer to Mom in a horrifying attempt at a sideways hug. “I love you guys so much,” he breathed, paling even more with every word.

She could hear the sirens and the blood that pounded in her ears like a drum.

“Foggy,” Mom choked, hands shaking, fingers swimming in red, pressing harder. “Sweetie,” she barely managed through the tears.

“I love you guys... So, so much. I’m so happy... You’re all okay.” Foggy spoke in labored breaths now, long strands of hair slipping from behind his ear to his cheek. Candy dug her nails into his palm.

“No. Foggy. No.” This wasn’t happening. This only happened on TV, to other people. “You can’t, not tonight.” Not when they’d been laughing just half an hour ago. “You’re supposed to watch me win the world math league title.”

“So proud… Candy…” He smiled at her weakly through his hair. His eyes barely focused on her face anymore.

Something invisible shoved its hand into her chest and squeezed.

Foggy’s head dropped onto Mom’s shoulder.

Candy screamed.

*

The ambulance ride had been Hell on earth.

“Clear!”

She couldn’t look away as his body jerked and then dropped back down, head lolling slightly, turned towards her. His eyes were closed. It seemed to go on forever. She didn't know how long ago she'd been on the sidewalk. How long since he stopped breathing. How many minutes passed in the blink of an eye.

Dad had somehow had enough clarity of mind to pull Foggy away from Mom and start CPR, crying and cursing, somehow keeping count of his presses at the same time to the tune of Another One Bites The Dust. Mom had stared at Foggy’s face, hands pressing loosely on the now fully red cardigan.

Candy’d just sat on the ground, staring at him, holding his hand, her mind repeating over and over ‘his last word was Candy, his last word was your name, he last word was Candy, his LAST WORD was Candy.’

When the ambulance had arrived they’d taken over, lifting Foggy onto a gurney and getting out a defibrillator or something, but she hadn’t registered that until later, after she’d shoved herself into the ambulance behind them without a second thought. She needed to be by his side when he woke up to yell at him for being a colossal idiot.

He didn’t wake up in the ambulance.

Mom and Dad took a taxi to the hospital, and she hadn't even noticed. She wasn’t sure they’d noticed she wasn’t with them, either.

They appeared next to her in the plastic waiting room chairs, Mom’s hands and lap soaked red, holding the dripping cardigan like a vice.

Candy stared at the form and clipboard in her hand, clutching a ballpoint pen knuckles white.

“They took him to surgery,” she said, voice hoarse. “They said someone would come talk to us. They didn’t know when.” She didn't know how long ago that had been.

If the ambulance ride had been Hell on earth, this was Purgatory.

When turned out to be an undetermined time later. Dad had at some point taken the form from her and started filling it. She’d been too busy staring at her hand, feeling Foggy’s touch still to even notice.

“The Nelson family?” Three heads snapped up. A surgeon without gloves and a mask approached them, some blood spattered on his scrubs. His face was serious.

“No,” Candy rasped. “No, no, please, no-”

“I’m so sorry. We did everything we could. The knife entered-”

Candy bent over her knees and sobbed, not listening to his excuses.

*

Home was something beyond Hell. If Purgatory was waiting, this was Nothingness. 

The three remaining Nelsons sat in the living-room, and it didn’t feel real.

Candy had her legs pulled up under a blanket in the corner of the couch, staring at the wall of pictures. He couldn't look away from the ones with Foggy.

Mom was on the phone in the other end of the couch with aunt Julia, wiping her face with a napkin in between shuddering breaths. Dad sat in the armchair, on the phone with someone else, elbows on his knees, covering his eyes.

Time didn’t seem to pass. Mom ended her call at some point and cried silently, but there was nothing signifying the passage of time.

“His last words were to me,” Candy said, surprising herself and her parents who turned to look at her. “He said he was proud of me. Why would he- He shoved me away. He took the knife for me. He said he’s proud of me. What gives him the right- Why did he- I didn’t say I loved him back-” 

Mom moved across the couch, wrapped her arms around her and Candy sobbed into the same shoulder Foggy had breathed his last breath on.

*

Foggy’s funeral was arranged for the following weekend with some help from people their parents knew in the community, and Candy moved in a haze until then. She didn’t go to school. She didn’t text her friends. She only managed a brief “Foggy’s dead” to her best friend, but didn’t have the energy to look at the replies.

She spent most her time sitting on his bed, looking at his things and remembering him.

She remembered him telling her stupid jokes she’d only rolled her eyes at. All the times he’d let her make fun of him. All the times he’d went in for a hug, and she’d pushed him away. All the times he’d shrugged when she’d dismissed his opinions or advice.

She remembered him teaching her math, back when he was still better at it than her. All the times he’d read her stories, played house with her, shared his toys with her, his hopes, his dreams, shared his everything. His life.

She remembered his hollow gaze and reassuring smile as he slipped away without her ever making his welcoming kindness up to him.

She hugged his pillow that still had a few strands of his loose blonde hair on it, still smelled like him, but didn't fill the emptiness shaped like him.

*

The morning of the funeral dawned sunny, and it was terribly unfair. It should have been cold and biting, raining hail from the sky. The world should have protested that it had lost someone so important.

“He’d like the sun,” Mom said, clutching her cup of coffee in her black funeral clothes. Candy expected the cup to shatter. “He’d. He’d be glad that it’s a nice weather out for this. That we're not in the rain.”

“Well he’s not here to enjoy it,” Candy snapped and covered her mouth. “Sorry. Sorry. Mom, I’m so. It’s just.”

“I know, honey, I know.” Mom hugged her tightly and allowed her to dump the by now soggy cereal. They grabbed their coats and left. Dad had gone to meet Nana, Pappy and the rest of the extended brood at the train station, and they’d go to the ceremony from there.

The memorial service was held in the church, before they’d bring the coffin in. Candy didn’t know if it was open casket or not. She wasn’t sure if he could look at him again. He would want her to remember him smiling. He wouldn’t be smiling now.

He was smiling in the big photo at the front, surrounded by flowers. It was his latest school photo, the one he’d gotten his long hair evened out for. He looked so happy. Candy clenched her hands into fists and kept looking at the picture. They were waiting for the priest still.

The door behind them creaked, but she didn’t pay it any attention. She couldn’t tear her eyes from the photo. 

Grammy gasped loudly, clutching her chest, looking back at the door, which made aunt Cassie and her husband turn around and look. Cassie dropped her camera. Mom and Dad turned to look beside her, and Mom made an inhumane sobbing sound.

Candy finally turned to see what the fuss was about.

“Um,” Foggy said, standing in the doorway, morning sun lighting up his hair golden and red. He looked at his family around the room, confused. His eye contact lingered on Mom, Dad and especially Candy before he looked to the front and met eyes with his own smiling self.

“Good timing?” He asked hopefully, trying to smile without looking rattled. He utterly failed.

Candy was the first one at the door, clutching him tightly and sobbing “how dare yous” into his funeral clothes.

*

The priest had called Foggy a Martyr, with a capital M.

“I don’t care what I am, as long as I’m not going to drop as suddenly as I woke,” Foggy replied with a clearly forced smile, sitting in the front pew with his family.

The funeral had very quickly turned into a celebration of him being brought back to life as “a messenger of the divine,” which no one had any complaints about, not even the atheist side of the family, which happened to include Foggy.

“Why me, though?” he asked priest, sitting pressed against Mom, holding Candy’s hand. He’d only tried to pull his hand away once, and when she hadn’t let go, only dug her hails in, he got the hint.

“Martyrs are self sacrificing. All the ones that have been brought back in recent years have been. Do you remember the woman and the tornado?” They all had seen it on the news.

“Yeah. But she was, like, important. Not that I’m not super glad I managed to save Candy- ow! You pinched me!” He looked at his sister, betrayed and pouting.

“Be glad I didn’t slap you! What the Hell were you _thinking,_ getting stabbed for me? Did you even fight, at the end? Cause it looked like you just gave up!” She blinked angrily. She'd cried enough.

“Candy,” Dad said in a warning tone from Mom’s other side, hand reached over her back to hold Foggy’s shoulder, but he didn't sound any less shaky than her.

Foggy swallowed, eyes glistening and looked at her in the eye like he could see her soul. Maybe he could, now. “I couldn’t let that happen to you. I saw what he was gonna do and I just, Candy, you’re my baby sister. I couldn’t- I just couldn’t. I’m not sure if I remember the… The end. But I wasn’t scared. Because I knew you’d go on to become the World Champion mathlete and you’d be fine.”

She slapped him, hard, on the shoulder, and hugged him like their lives depended on it. “Don’t do it again.”

“I don’t intend to,” he promises. “But like I was saying. I’m just me. I’m not anyone important to the world, just my family, who I’m very happy to see here. So why was I brought back? Although I’m very glad. Especially about the timing. Great dramatic moment for everyone. Especially for me when I woke up in the cold room in my coffin and had to walk across the parking lot all the way here.”

The priest smiled. “The Lord works in mysterious ways. You showed you were willing to sacrifice yourself. Sometimes that’s what it takes. And now you’re a vessel for holy fire and judgement.”

“...So we both got something to put on our resumes that day,” Foggy said after a long pause.

Candy slapped him again, and they both laughed until they cried.

**Author's Note:**

> I read Whose Poems Sewed You Shut by vibishan. This has nothing to do with that story, but I loved the idea of Martyrs. My mind took it to a very different direction, but this is full disclosure.
> 
> Part 2 is in the works, but who knows if I'll ever finish it. I'll just throw this here, no use keeping this in my drafts for my eyes only.


End file.
